Delhi chief Secretary Anshu Prakash after a meeting with Lt Governor Anil Baijal over his alleged manhandling by an AAP MLA, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash on Tuesday alleged that an assault on him at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence was “premeditated” and a “conspiracy” of all those who were present at a meeting on Monday night.

In his complaint to DCP (North) seeking action, Prakash alleged that Kejriwal, his deputy Manish Sisodia and 11 AAP MLAs were present at the meeting at the CM’s residence where they threatened to “implicate” him in false cases if the issue of releasing TV advertisements about the AAP government’s achievements was not resolved.

He also claimed he was roughed up.

The chief minister’s office has brushed off the chief secretary’s allegations as “bizarre and baseless”, while Sisodia has said they are “baseless and ludicrous”.

In his complaint, Prakash, a 1986-batch IAS officer of the Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territory (AGMUT) cadre, alleged that at the meeting, an attempt was made to “compel” him to follow “unlawful directions”.

The chief secretary claimed that around 8:45 pm on Monday, the advisor to the chief minister informed him that he had to reach the CM’s residence at midnight to discuss the issue of releasing some TV advertisements relating to the completion of three years of the AAP government.

“The advisor (to CM) had called me around 11:30 pm (last night) to confirm that I had left for the meeting. Thereafter, I left my residence in my official car... and reached CM’s residence at midnight... I was taken to the front room where Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia and 11 MLAs were present,” he said.

The chief secretary, 56, alleged that as the meeting started, one of AAP MLAs slammed the door shut, and he was made to sit between MLA Amanatullah Khan and another MLA on a three-seater sofa.

“CM directed me to answer the MLAs and explain the reasons for the delay in the release of the TV campaign. I explained to them that officers were bound by guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court,” he said in the complaint.

“The MLAs started shouting at me and abused me while blaming me and the bureaucracy for not doing enough publicity for the government,” he added.

One of the MLAs, he alleged, threatened him, saying that he (Prakash) would be confined to the room for the entire night if he did not agree to releasing the TV campaign.

He said in his police complaint that he was also told he would be implicated in “false cases including under the SC/ST Act”.

“Khan and the other MLA on my left side whom I can identify, without any provocation from my side, started hitting and assaulting me and hit several blows with fists on my head and temple,” he said.

Prakash added that his spectacles fell to the ground.

“I was in a state of shock. With difficulty, I was able to leave the room and get into my official car and leave the CM’s residence,” he said.

“I request you (North DCP) to take action as per the law as the assault was premeditated and a conspiracy of all (those) present with the intention to criminally intimidate, cause hurt with the motive to deter me from the discharge of my lawful duty and compel me to follow unlawful directions. None of the persons present in the room made any effort to save me,” he said in the complaint.

Since the party has come to power in Delhi, the bureaucracy and the AAP dispensation have clashed on a range of issues.

In December, 2015, when Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain suspended two special secretaries, IAS and DANICS (Delhi Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service) officers went on mass leave against the move.

SAINT PETERSBURG: A
homemade bomb blast at a supermarket in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg injured 10 people Wednesday, officials said, sparking a
probe into attempted murder.

"According to preliminary information, an explosion of
an unidentified object occurred in a store," a spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative
Committee, Svetlana Petrenko, said in a statement.

The blast was caused by a "homemade explosive device
with the power equivalent to 200 grammes of TNT filled with lethal
fragments," she said.

"The investigation is looking at all possible causes of
what happened," she said, adding that a probe for attempted murder had
been launched.

The incident comes several months after Russia's second city
was rocked with a metro bombing in April which killed 16 people and amid
concern that hundreds of Russian citizens who travelled to fight alongside
jihadists groups abroad could pose a mounting security challenge back home.

Rattled by a one-two
punch of betrayal and scandal, Donald Trump on Thursday tried to block the
publication of a bare-knuckle book that portrays his White House as a fetid
stew of backbiting, incompetence and dysfunction. The publishers
responded by moving the release date up by four days to Friday. Trump instructed his
lawyers to prevent the release of “Fire and Fury: Inside
the Trump White House” -- an expose by author and political muckraker Michael
Wolff -- which quotes key Trump aides expressing serious doubt
about his fitness for office. The book -- which
paints Trump as mentally unstable and far out of his depth -- quotes at length
his former ally and chief strategist Steve Bannon, who also received a “cease and
desist” order from Trump’s attorneys. “Your publication of
the false/baseless statements about Mr. Trump gives rise to, among other
claims, defamation by libel, defamation by libel per se, false light invasion
of privacy, tortious interference with contractual relations, an…